KIRK HAMMETT Says He's Always Been The 'Nice Guy' In METALLICA

August 10, 2004

In an in-depth interview with Electricbasement.com, METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett conceded that the group's new documentary, "Metallica: Some Kind of Monster", pushed the limits on documenting the band's recent activity, such as the infighting, therapy and more. "To be truthful I think it is all overboard," he said. "It all went too far. I mean, everything, every aspect of it went too far, but that is what makes it what it is. It's a very extreme movie. It is extreme in the depth that it attains. You know, it is extreme in the way we opened ourselves up to the cameras. I mean, it's extreme in all the events that were, you know, brought into our lives. It is just, it's just all extreme and all went too far, and that's what, I guess that's just like part of the drama of being, you know, human."

Hammett also addressed his role as a referee between the often dueling founders of the band, James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich, "I have always been the nice guy. I mean, you know, it's really amazing because I thought everyone knew that I was the referee of the band, and you know, I have been in that situation for the last 20 years, I guess this is just the first time that anyone has ever caught it on film, and that has been the one thing that has been surprising me is that everyone asks me how does it feel to get in between Lars and James? Well what people don't realize is that I was thrown in that position within the first three weeks of joining the band back in 1983, and in that position to this day. I mean, you know, whether you call it referee or a bridge or a buffer, whatever. I mean, I'm just surprised that so many people have drawn attention to it. I guess whenever I've been in that situation it's always been behind closed doors or at 4:00 in the morning or whatever. The 11th hour of recording an album or whatever, but you know. It's just, when I come to think of it, if I wasn't there, or if I just got into the thick of it with as much intensity as those guy, we might not, we wouldn't have lasted a few years. I don't know."

Read the entire interview here.

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